I did get around to finally finishing Richelle Mead’s Shadow Heir. It ended much the way the entire book experience was: unsatisfying. It’s a shame, because the first three books and pretty much everything else Richelle Mead has written has blown me away. Maybe she’ll give us one more, even though that was the conclusion, and make it better.

I started Kim Harrison’s A Perfect Blood right away and it’s already got me hooked. I notice I’m dissecting writing a lot more now, and Kim does a lot of ‘showing not telling’ – but sometimes it feels a little forced. Nonetheless, the story is engrossing and I love Rachel and can’t wait to see how things progress with Trent in this book. I hope they progress somewhere good!

I haven’t touched that other manuscript I started since I got that out. I want to finish TWICE SWORN first, although it’s calling me. “Staci, Staceeeeeeee, come write me!” So I’m motivated to finish Twice Sworn. 😀

I am writing the ending while, at the same time, re-editing the beginning. I cut the first two chapters completely and started it somewhere in chapter 3. I think it’s a stronger beginning. I’m also working really hard on eliminating passive verbs from my writing. I found this interesting article about E-Prime (or English Prime) which is basically English without using any to be verbs AT ALL. It’s an interesting concept to be sure.

I have another beta reader (and potentially three more), so hopefully I’ll be getting this bad boy strengthened and polished to the point it shines and there’s no way my first choice agent won’t want me!

Tell me you don’t want to see that movie right this second? I know I do!

I’ve been reading Shadow Heir by Richelle Mead. It’s been on my ‘currently reading’ list for about two weeks. I LOVE Richelle Mead. I can’t express how much her YA series (and the expansion of that series) and her Succubus series blew me away. I also remember eating through the first three books of this series. But for some reason, I’ve had a really hard time pushing myself to finish Shadow Heir. I want to finish it, not to find out what’s going to happen with the main character, but instead, to be able to start the next book on my list, which will either be Fair Game by Patricia Briggs or A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison. I’m not sure why that is. When I finally finish, I’ll post up a review and see if I can’t pinpoint how this book lost me.

As for my book, TWICE SWORN, I’ve been slowly but steadily working on it. I am writing new chapters, since I decided to completely change the ending. I’ve had to work each chapter out on my whiteboard before I’ve been able to write it. I want to make sure everything makes sense before I put it down this time, and hopefully this will be the last full rewrite I do. I hope to start my full edits and submit queries to my first choices agents within a month. Cross your fingers for me!